This invention relates to methods and apparatuses for implanting natural and synthetic hairs into human skin.
For many years efforts have been made to develop methods and devices for implanting artificial or natural hairs into the scalps of human beings in an effort to eliviate the appearance of baldness. For example, as early as 1913 a relatively complex hair implanting instrument was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,061,005. This apparatus included a mechanism for advancing a hair through a pair of flexible needle arms in timed sequence with the spreading of the arms. During this same year U.S. Pat. No. 1,059,631 also issued disclosing the use of a hook-type anchor secured to the end of a hair or to a set of hairs to provide a holding action when implanted into a human scalp. These earlier approaches were generally unsuccessful due to the tendency of the hairs to fall out.
In more recent years other methods and apparatuses have been developed in an attempt to improve the hair retention capability of artificially implanted hairs. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,003,155, for example, hair anchors are provided in the form of darts which may be used on either artificial media such as the heads of dolls or, it is claimed, on human scalps. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,062,214 electrically energized electrodes are used in an attempt to improve hair tenacity by creating scar tissue which encompasses the hair anchor. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,596,292 yet another hair anchor is proposed comprising a complex set of loops disposed below a percutaneous portion of the anchor. All of these prior art methods and apparatuses have sought to attain the heretofor illusive goal of providing a relatively simple, practical and economic process of implanting hairs into the scalps of human beings which hairs remain firmly anchored in place for substantial periods of time. These prior attempts, however, have met with only nominal success.
Accordingly, it is a general object of the present invention to provide improved methods and apparatuses for implanting hair into human skin.
More specifically, it is an object of the present invention to provide methods and apparatuses for implanting hair into human skin that remain firmly in place and securely anchored long after the implantation process is performed.
Another object of the invention is to provide a relatively simple method of implanting hair into human skin which method may be performed with facility with but minimal training.
Another object of the invention is to provide a method of implanting hair into human skin which does not tend to inflame or otherwise injure skin tissue.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide apparatuses for implanting hair into human skin of simple and economic construction and which may be readily cleaned for reuse.